


Heavenly Responsible to Prayers

by Ultralight4



Series: Touhou Retelling [1]
Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Actually more of a remake, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Except by those that know Touhou, Gen, New tags as the chapters progress, New take on Touhou, Oh god why did i think reviving this is a good idea, Which is probably everyone, child protagonist, mysterious character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29414445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultralight4/pseuds/Ultralight4
Summary: A retelling of highly responsive to prayers. In a land of eastern fantasy, can a young shrine maiden awaken the yin yang orbs to stop the incidents that threaten the land, while saving the only true friend that she has left?
Series: Touhou Retelling [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163312
Kudos: 1





	Heavenly Responsible to Prayers

**Author's Note:**

> All character, settings, and general events belong to Zun. This work is a work of fiction, that only loosely follows his games and thus has all sorts of fan interpretation and contrivances in the work. You have been warned.
> 
> This is a remake of a retelling of Highly Responsive to Prayers, for a project that has until now been left behind as I lost interest. This is going to be the first part in a series as i retell all the games to form a new coherent narrative.

In a land of tales of eastern fantasy, where those tales are told again and again, lies a land of those eastern tales. Within this lost land, the paradise is no more, as youkia run wild, and no one there to stop them. As the defender of humans in the area has been killed, and though other forces try to fill that gap, the youkia roam the land mostly unopposed. The only hope left is a young girl who at the age six had to take up her mothers position as the shrine maiden of the only large shrine in the land, but has none of the experience to act with that position's authority. It has been three years since that girl's mother has died, and an incident is about to occur that will change that girl's life forever.

“Sniff. Why, why, why did you have to leave me?” The girl was a wreck, her clothes all stained and muddy, her nose red and runny, and her tears, plentiful. Her hair was a complete mess with all that mud and dirt sticking to it. She had been like this for a while, as indicated by the slightly damp floor she was sitting on.  
  
“Please my lady, understand that your mother never intended to leave you. Circumstances beyond her control made her meet a sad end.” A turtle, his speech and beard show him to be strange among his kind, but those same qualities also pointed to him being old and wise, attempting to consult the girl who he was looking after.

“Why did she have to -sniff- die? I… I will never be as powerful as mommy. I can't even -sniff- use the orbs” The source of her sadness and current mess could be found just a short distance away, in the corner where it had been thrown by its current owner, a strange orb with the yin yang symbol painted on it.

“Please understand that in time you will learn to control it, just like all the mikos before you. You just need to train with it more.” The turtle muttered, trying to comfort the miko.  
  
“I- I have been trying -sniff- for years. E- Even after three years I -sniff- am no closer to summoning the -sniff- Yin-Yang Orbs. -Sniff- -Sniff- Whaaaa.” With that, the little girl bolted to her room, leaving behind a river of tears.  
  
“Wait Reimu-”

Suddenly a mysterious voice fills the room. “That's too bad, she is still not ready.” A loud ripping sound is heard as the wise turtle turns to face the new guest with no hesitancy. In the room suddenly was a tall human like figure. She had long golden hair, on top of which rests a pure white mob cap. Her eyes were the same color of her hair, if a little darker. She was wearing a long purple dress that reached to her ankles yet seemed immune to any stains, and was holding a parasol as if it were a walking cane, with nary a stain or blemish on it as well.

“Hello Miss Yakumo. Is something the matter, or do you need something instead.” Though the appearance of the turtle did not change, one could make out the smallest increase in scorn when talking to this older woman.  
  
“Oh Genji, it is actually a little both this time.” As she speaks, she opens up her parasol despite the fact she was already inside. “I am here to say that unless she improves rapidly in the near future, she will be the end of the Hakurei family line, and be forever regarded as a failure by anyone who even remembers her.” Despite the direness of the warning, her voice was calm, maybe sounding a bit too happy for what she was saying.  
  
“Miss Yakumo you do realize she is only nine years old.”  
  
“Yes but Youkia are roaming the land as though they own the place. The Hakurei shrine maiden needs to be out there dealing with the threats and incidents, instead of cowering in the shrine hoping some powerful youkai does not attack.”  
  
“Maybe with your help the attunement process it would give Reimu the boast that she so desperately needs.” Genji was glaring at Yakumo, and his voice had a noticeable amount of scorn and bitterness in it.

Yakumo began to wave her finger back and forth. “Genji Genji Genji, you know that if I show myself too early she would quickly rely on me and might even have a change of heart about exterminating youkai.” Before the turtle could refute the older lady continued “This is all just a distraction for why I really came here.”  
  
Though Genji would have loved to continue the discussion, once the hag changed the subject so abruptly, there really was nothing he could do. “Sigh. What is it that you need then?”  
  
“A powerful threat is gathering her strength in hell, and when she is complete she will march out of hell and try and conquer Gensokyo. Not that there is any chance it would succeed but such an attempt will cause other youkai to become embolden.”

Genji interjected into Yakumo's speech “You don't have the authority alone to enter hell and deal with the problem, but with the involvement of the Hakurei Shrine it would become a proper incident and the goddess of hell would need to allow it.”

The older lady gave a nod of agreement. “Yes that is the idea. Hopefully you have also realized that I do not and will not need the help of the current shrine maiden for this task. After all, the guardian of the shrine maiden would work just as well for my purposes, so long as the goddess does not give too close a look at us.”

Genji let out an even larger sigh then he did a few moments ago. “Of course miss Yakumo. Tell me, what reason do you have onto why I should not tell the lady about my departure.”

The older woman formed a smirk on her face “Once she learns that you are heading off to such a dangerous place, she will attempt to follow. The longer she is in the dark about this, the better the odds that we can complete this without having her get involved.”

“At least let me inform Shingyoku about what is going on.”

“If you wish, but after you do so we will need to head over to my place to prepare for the trip ahead.”

* * *

The door to the maidens room slided open, revealing a cleaned up shrine maiden that now looked the part. Her chest length purple dyed hair was now straight and mostly cleaned, her clothes were replaced for the garbs of a traditional shrine maiden, and her face only has signs of recent crying. She walked down the hallway and into the main room. “Genji, i am sorry about my- huh?” Reimu stopped, there was nobody in the main room.

“Genji, are you there?” Reimu spoke in a louder voice, hoping he was just out of sight. No response. It is weird for Genji to go off somewhere without telling her about it. As she moved towards the door that led outside, she heard an echoing voice all around her.

“ **He has already left** ” It was hard to discern anything from the voice, in fact it sounded like it was multiple voices speaking at the same time and... not? Reimu did not know what to make of the voice, but she knew it was certainly scary.  
  
“W-who are you?” Reimu tried to sound intimidating, but utterly failed at that task. Both her voice and her posture betrayed her. She was scared of this unknown but seemingly powerful youkai.

A large Yin-Yang orb appeared, almost like a scaled up version of her own Yin-Yang orb that was still in the corner, except with the addition of red… lines running all around it. “ **We are Shingyoku, the spirit of the Yin-Yang orb itself. As for Genji,** **he went off to deal with an incident, and it is our job to make sure you do not leave after him** ” Knowing the nature of the youkai certainly made it less scary, but still no less intimidating.

“Genji left without me? N-no that is not true! Tell me where he is NOW or I will go out looking for him myself!” The shrine maiden was getting frustrated at the sphere, but also frustrated at herself as well.  
  
“ **We can't let you leave lady Reimu, even if it means physically preventing you from leaving.** ” Shingyoku span around rapidly before charging at the shrine maiden. Reimu just barely managed to jump out of the way as the sphere smashed into the floor, but landed squarely on her left arm in the process. Reimu got off the floor only to see the sphere was already free and beginning to spin around rapidly. “ **You lack the ability to use the Yin-Yang orbs, let alone fly. How will you survive with no one to protect you.** ” 

She looked around the room frantically for anything that could help her, before spotting the Yin-Yang orb in the corner. As Shingyoku charged at her again, the shrine maiden ran towards the smaller orb. The large sphere tried to swerve around to hit her, but she managed to dodge the incoming charge. When she reached the Yin-Yang orb she heard a loud thump before turning around and seeing that Shingyoku had bounced against the back wall and was heading right for her. Not thinking, she threw the orb at the oncoming sphere as hard as she could. The Yin-Yang orb smashed into Shingyoku, causing the large sphere to be knocked back and a large dent to be made in it. The Yin-Yang orb meanwhile rebounded back to the shrine maiden, and though she tried to catch the orb it still managed to hit stomach with enough force to knock some of the air out of it.  
  
As Reimu recovered from the blow, Shingyoku flew into the air and launched a wave of danmaku. Reimu, though she had not fully regained her breath, ran towards the sphere with the orb in tow and ducked underneath the bullets as they were approaching her. “ **Hm. Even without the full power of the orbs you are still able to use it to defend yourself. Find then Lady Reimu, if you can defeat us then we will tell you where Genji is.** ” The sphere dropped to the ground fired another wave of danmaku at the shrine maiden in such a way that the bullets were parallel to the ground.

Reimu stopped in her tracks and moved the orb into her left hand as she got out the other treasure of the Hakurei shrine, the purification rod. Despite not knowing how to use the Yin-Yang orb, she did know how to use her gohei. As the bullets drew near, she swung at them with her gohei and they broke apart on contact. Shingyoku fired another wave of danmaku, but Reimu threw her orb at the sphere, destroying any bullets that hit the orb and interrupted Shingyoku, sending the orb flying towards one of the walls of the shrine.

As Shingyoku reeled from the impact, Reimu ran over to get the orb. Surprisingly for its weight though it was still bouncing, as it ricocheted off one of the walls and headed right to the shrine maiden. Reimu, not wanting to get hit again, swung her gohei with all her might at the orb, and the orb went towards where it was swung to without any resistance that should have occurred.

…

…

 _Wait a second_ Reimu thought as she ran over to where her orb bounced off to. As she was doing this Shingyoku had recovered and was charging her again. The Yin-Yang orb bounced off the wall and towards Reimu once again, but this time Reimu dodge the orb and with a swing of he gohei set it right to the charging Shingyoku. 

As the two orbs clashed, a white light filled the room. When it dispersed, Shingyoku was nowhere to be found, but spoke anyway. “ **Well done dear maiden, you have managed to beat us**.” Despite not appearing to be human in any way, the voice did sound tired.

No matter how tired the voice appeared to be, it was clear as day that the shrine maiden was way more fatigued. Her heavy breathing and sweat rolling down her face were prime examples of it. Despite her condition though, she was more than ready to go after Genji, all she needed to know is where he was. “You said you were going to tell me where Genji is so tell me.” Her own voice also sounded tired, but there was more annoyance in it than Shingyokus.

“ **Genji headed to Makai, but beware, the realm of Makai is the realm of demons, plenty of whom would love to tear you apart**.” Despite the tiredness of their voice, the direness of the message was not lost on the shrine maiden.

“Then all the more reason to make sure Genji is okay.” With that, the little girl headed out the door, but before she left she looked back into the room “I will never stand idly by while he is risking his life.” And with that Reimu left her shrine, vowing to return with Genji unharmed.

…

…

Once the shrine maiden was well on her way, and all other sounds stopped for but a moment, Shingyokus spoke again, seemingly only to itself, without a hint of tiredness in its voice “ **We are sorry we had to lie to you lady Reimu, but you would not be able to survive hell in any the way you are now. We only hope that Shinki can keep you safe while you are in Makai**.”


End file.
